EAST FARMINGDALE, NY — Planet Nugg, a cannabis dispensary, celebrated its grand opening on Friday, the business announced. The shop’s soft opening was Aug. 31.
The dispensary is at 2043 Wellwood Ave., East Farmingdale.
Planet Nugg offers flower, edibles, concentrates, topicals, accessories, pre-rolls, vaporizers, tinctures, and CBD products.
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Owner Dave Tubens said Planet Nugg’s mission is threefold.
“[One is] to create a great dispensary,” he told Patch. “Two is to help people, whether it’s with pain meds or medicinally. Three is to really save lives. We want to educate the parents out there on what to do when faced with that question. We are a safe alternative. A safe, clean alternative.”
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Tubens said there is a “stigma” that cannabis is “just for recreation” or just for people to get high.
“It truly isn’t,” he said. “We have something for everyone.”
Tubens said one of his customers is a woman with cancer who recently had a double mastectomy and was going for reconstruction surgery.
“The amount of pain she was in, it was incredible,” Tubens said. “She came in for our soft opening and has come back twice since then. The other part of our mission is, if we can help the community get rid of the illicit drug market and get rid of the fentanyl problem, if we can just save one life in this whole thing, it’s so worth it for all of us.”
Tubens, a chiropractor who owns Island Regional Chiropractic, is running his first Planet Nugg. He said he built his chiropractor business on educating patients.
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“For years, I’ve been sending a lot of my patients over to certain doctors that give the license for medicinal cannabis, and it’s been extremely successful,” he said.
Tubens, at his dispensary business, plans to educate people rather than patients. He is working on community outreach to high schools and has been in communications with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, he said. He has been working with the Town of Babylon on programming to reach different people who he says could benefit from Planet Nugg’s programs.
“We’re really getting out there, trying to get the word out that we’re about education,” he said.
The business promises “knowledgeable and friendly” staff passionate about helping customers find products that suit their needs. Planet Nugg says it offers products for pain or stress relief and to those “simply seeking to enhance your well-being.”
“When we built Planet Nugg, we strived to be the flagship cannabis dispensary not only on Long Island, but also in New York,” Tubens said. “I definitely feel like we’ve achieved that. Our budtenders are second to none. They were truly handpicked by us. And not just because of their experience with cannabis, but because of their stories.”
Tubens said cannabis has “saved the lives” of some of his employees.
“Some were dependent upon opioids, and it saved their life that way,” he said. “We have one employee who was always picked on in school and had anxiety and it helped him. We pick people who are truly passionate about it, and it really shows to all of our customers when they come in.”
The first couple of weeks have gone “much better” than Tubens anticipated, he said. While the volume of customers and sales was “great,” feedback has been “incredible.”
“Planet Nugg is definitely the biggest dispensary around,” Tubens said. “I’m proud to say it’s definitely the most beautiful, most interactive and friendly one out there, as well.”
Tubens noted the vast majority of Long Island municipalities have opted out of allowing dispensaries to open. The Town of Babylon is one of a handful of local Long Island governments to allow the stores, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government.
Rich Schaffer, supervisor of the Town of Babylon, has been “incredibly supportive” of the opening process, making it very streamlined, Tubens said.
“To open up as fast as possible was our goal, and Farmingdale is pretty much the only place you can do that in,” he said.
Planet Nugg follows Strain Stars and Happy Days Dispensary as Long Island’s third retail cannabis dispensary, both of which also opened in East Farmingdale.
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